Continuing with "Struggles With Ropes":

- - - -
    Morning came and amazingly there was still circulation in her arms.  Destiny didn’t know how she had slept that night.  Her predicament was not easy, and yet there was something oddly exciting about being held captive by these strange, beautiful creatures.  Once the threat was gone, being tied up was an oddly calming sensation.  Robbed of her motor skills, she was able to think and reflect where she hadn’t had the chance before.  There was also the freedom from making decisions and depending upon herself, something that was a burden sometimes.  She looked over to the older women, barely twenty-five in the first light of morning.  She seemed so peaceful.  Sher face, edged with the fringe of the sleeve of her dress as she slept curled up, had none of the sadness and barely contained fear of the night before.  What they must have gone through.
    Still, as oddly satisfying as being bound between two warm, lovely women seemed at the moment, Destiny realized that it would be in her best interest to free herself.  Looking around, she noticed the metal edge of the side of a cabinet that she had purchased in Pierre and had brought to the ranch on a whim.  She’d never noticed the rough edge before, it being so low on the leg of the cabinet.  It was perfect for her needs now.
    Cautiously inching her way along the floor on her hip and shoulder, Destiny eased her way out from between her two captors.  The process was hard and it hurt her hip and shoulder no end, but she managed to pull herself to the cabinet.  After a few tries, she pulled herself up to a sitting position and rested her bound hands against the rough patch.
    As she worked the leather thong against the rough patch, Destiny looked at the sleeping Indians.  In particular, she looked at Quiet Waters.  The woman seemed so serene, even when she was concealing her fear last night.  Looking at the woman sleep, the rancher noticed there was an attractiveness about her that shone out like a beacon with the calm and quiet of sleep.  She wished they were friends.  Being bound might not be so bad in that case.
    Quiet Waters’ eye eased open and took a moment to focus before realizing that the white woman was gone.  The Indian looked up and locked onto her sitting up against a cabinet, smiling with nervous friendliness.  For her to have inched out from between them during the night and sat up without waking them - - they must have been more tired than she thought.  For a moment, Quiet Waters was annoyed, but then she thought: The woman hadn’t cried out, hadn’t tried to escape or to harm them in their sleep.  Perhaps things were going to work out after all and they could be gone from this place without imposing themselves upon this unfortunate any longer.
    [“She moved!”] gasped Black Fox, now also awake.
    {“Yet she did not cry out as you feared,”] she replied. [“Perhaps you fear for nothing, as I have said.  We must be gone from here quickly, before the men of the camp notice her missing.  I will scout around to see if we may safely make our way.  You must make us enough provisions to last the journey home.  I do not like stealing from the white woman, but perhaps she will consider it a fair trade for our being gone.”]
    [“Who cares what she thinks?”] shrugged Black Fox.
    [“I do,”] Quiet Waters answered with growing impati8ence at her sister’s immaturity. [“Unwelcomed though we may be, we are still guests in her hearth and I would not abuse that status any more than we have already.”]
    With desperate caution, the elder Indian eased her way out of the door, leaving her sister with the captive ranch woman.  Black Fox kneeled down next to Destiny and grinned mockingly.
    [“And how are you this morning, Struggles With Ropes?”] she purred. [“I hope you will pardon me if I do not exchange places with you, no matter what my sister may think will ease your burden.  Besides, you look very comely that way.”] The girl grunted to herself as she stood.  [“May I never again have to surrender myself to such an indignity.”] Then she thought for a moment and her voice grew dreamy.   [“Except to Buffalo’s Horn, perhaps.  To be bound by his hand, gagged by his cloth and my body taken with reckless abandon by his until he made me scream with delight into my gag.”] She shivered and then, suddenly self-conscious around the helpless Destiny, replaced the woman’s gag and quickly moved to the kitchen. 
    Destiny continued to work her bonds against the rough edge of the cabinet.  Her motions were more furious now that she was alone in the room.  Pausing for just a fleeting moment to feel her progress, she could tell the leather cord was fraying.  Perhaps she might be able to saw through after all.  There was no indication that, when the two Indians left, as they were obviously planning to do, that they would take her with them as some sort of hostage.  Still, she was too much of a believer in self-determination to leave that possibility to the hands of fate.  She kept sawing, ignoring the building ache in her shoulders.
    A growl of hunger emanated from her stomach.  Destiny wished she had asked for something to eat before the older Indian woman had gone off, but she realized that her plea probably wouldn’t have been understood anyway.  She told herself that she should count herself lucky that there was still some feeling in her arms or she’d really be stuck.  Destiny knew going in that what she had planned would be a long, arduous task, but right now her shoulders hurt so much from working them up and down that she was trying to mentally will the leather thongs to part.  She threw up a prayer to her lord and creator to give her strength in this taxing situation. 
    With that, the thongs parted.
    Instantly, Destiny froze.  She kept her hands behind her and peered around to see if Black Fox was about to return.  With her eyes toward the kitchen the entire time, the rancher reached up and was barely able to grasp the know under her breasts that held the cinch to her elbows.  With mulish patience, Destiny worked the knot free., her neck craned to the side to watch for Black Fox’s return.  She only took her eyes away once, to shake a strand of blonde hair from her eyes.
    After the knot parted and the thong cinching her elbows eased, Destiny worked quickly to undo the cords around her legs.  There was no way to keep up a pretense of captivity now.  If Black Fox came in, Destiny was of a deiced disadvantage and would undoubtedly end up captured again.  The last thong came free just in time for Destiny to spring up and crouch down on tingling legs.
    [“I wish Quiet Water would return,”] Black Fox whispered to herself, her anxiety bare for any to see, were anyone else there.  It was the last thing she would say beyond a yelp of surprise as Destiny’s hand caught her ankle and spilled her onto the floor.
    Quickly Destiny was on top of her and, in a battle of wills, managed to force the young Indian’s arms behind her where they were soon trapped by the same thongs that had once bound her own wrists.  That accomplished, Destiny forced the same clothe that had gagged her into Black Fox’s mouth and tied it behind the flowing black hair that cascaded down the youth’s back.
    Black Fox shook with indignation and impotent fury, raging at the turn of events.  The gods turned a deaf ear to her muffled protests.  Destiny certainly wasn’t listening.  She finished the job by winding leather around the girl’s slender ankles and over the leather skirt about where her knees would be.  The girl’s elbows were cinched together in the small of her back, but there wasn’t enough thong left to tie them off to her torso.  No matter.  It didn’t have to last forever, not for what Destiny planned.  It only had to last until Quiet Waters returned.  When Destiny finished, Black Fox turned over onto her back and looked up at her pale captor, experiencing again the vulnerability she swore never to again experience except by choice.
    “It isn’t as funny now that the shoe’s on the other foot, is it?” smirked Destiny, standing over her in triumph.  She patted Black Fox on the bottom and said, “Let’s hope your sister doesn’t take too long getting back.”
- - - -